Guide for Writers

This page is targeted towards people who want to write questions that will be turned into Numbas quizzes.

Whether you are building the questions in Numbas yourself, or are passing them on to someone else to build for you, this advice applies to you.

The following advice is for both formative and summative quiz development.

What to include

The following information should be included when writing a good question:

• Authentic, well-written questions

• Solutions with detailed reasoning:

  • Solutions should include direction on marking, carry-forward errors etc.

• Identification of quantities that are constants

• Identification of quantities (whether numbers, lists, words etc.) that are variables

• A realistic range over which each variable can vary, and by what increment

• Any values a variable cannot take

• Any conditions that the solution must fulfill (e.g., efficiency <100%; matrix determinant <> 0 if calculating the inverse)

If you are using Numbas yourself, see Question Planning for information on how to get your question into the Numbas Editor.

If you want a more detailed list of what to include continue to the Writer’s Checklist.